Position in chronology
OSP 2, 162
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet from the city of Nippur in southern Iraq, written under the kings of Akkad (around 2300 BCE). It records quantities of onions handed out to a handful of named men — a man identified by his father's name, a boat, a household overseer, a butcher — in the standard capacity measures of the day. Onions were a staple of the Mesopotamian diet, and texts like this show how even humble vegetables were tracked by the scribes of an institutional storehouse.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The top of the tablet is broken, so the first entries are lost. What remains reads like a distribution list for onions: a quantity (now lost) went to Ur-Damu, son of Enlil-la; 1 barig and 2 ban — roughly 80 liters — went for the boat of U-zalla, and the household overseer took charge of it; 3 ban (about 30 liters) went to Lugal-engar-du, the butcher; and 2 ban (about 20 liters) went to Dalla, son of Lugal-kigalla. A final entry, mostly broken, records more onions in connection with a sluice or measuring-weir. The rest is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [......] x-mu-[......] 2. [...] onions: Ur-Damu, 3. [son of] Enlil-la. 4. 1 barig 2 ban of onions: the boat of U-zalla; 5. the overseer of the household took (it) over. 6. 3 ban of onions: Lugal-engar-du, 7. the butcher. 8. 2 ban of onions: Dalla, 9. son of Lugal-kigalla. 10. [...] onions: the sluice/measuring-weir x [......]
Our translation engine — Fable 5.1. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[...] x-mu-[...] [...] szum2# ur-da-mu [dumu] en-lil2-la2 1(barig) 2(ban2) szum2 ma2 u4-zal-la ugula-e2 dab5-[ba] 3(ban2@c) szum2 lugal-engar-du10 gir2-la2 2(ban2@c) szum2 dal-la dumu lugal-ki-gal-la [...] szum2 kab2-ku5 x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 162. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P216316) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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